Workflow is generally defined as a series of tasks within an organization to produce a final outcome. In particular, workflow, as defined by the Workflow Management Coalition®, is the automation of a business process, in whole or in part, during which documents, information, or tasks are passed from one participant to another for action, according to a set of procedural rules.
A workflow management system, as defined by the Workflow Management Coalition® is a system that defines, creates, and manages the execution of workflows through the use of software, running on one or more workflow engines, which is able to interpret the process definition, interact with workflow participants and, where required invoke the use of information technology (IT) tools and applications.
Therefore, a workflow model is a description of how different tasks are sequenced in a business process and who performs these tasks. Since tasks involve information that is exchanged between people or systems, it is necessary to extend this definition to include the data that is being exchanged. From this explanation we can define three separate components of most workflow models:                Organization (e.g., who does what and who knows what in the organization?)        Process (e.g., what are the tasks and how are they sequenced?)        Application (e.g., what data is to be exchanged?)Any number of organizational data sets, business processes or applications can be used in a single workflow process, and further, these components may be re-used in any number of workflow processes.        
Sophisticated workgroup computing applications facilitate defining different workflows for different types of jobs. For example, in a publishing setting a document may be automatically routed from writer to editor to proofreader to production. At each stage in the workflow, one individual or group is responsible for a specific task. Once the task is complete, the workflow system ensures that the individuals responsible for the next task are notified and receive the data they need to execute their stage of the process. Some of the common workflow systems include FLOWMARK® and POWERFLOW®, available from International Business Machines and Percussion Software, respectively.
IBM FLOWMARK® is a workflow management system that helps organizations to define, document, test, control, execute, and improve their business processes. Furthermore, it helps define control flow and data flow via a graphical interface, thereby avoiding writing of code. Flowmark is usually used in conjunction with Lotus NOTES®.
Percussion POWERFLOW® is a tool for adding workflow logic to any Lotus Domino® application via a graphical interface. POWERFLOW also performs statistical analysis on business processes. POWERFLOW requires a Domino server (4.5 or above).
The business world has long recognized the benefits of employing workflow systems to automate internal business processes. By defining an internal process and automating the flow of information, these tools have improved the way business is done. Paper-intensive, manual tasks, such as expense reporting or claims processing, have been replaced with a more efficient workflow model. In addition, with the growing emphasis on electronic business enterprise strategies, workflow technology has also become the integration platform to support business-to-business (i.e., external) relationships, as well as internal processes.
As companies have recognized the benefits of workflow enabled electronic document exchange, several workflow automation tools have emerged in the market. These tools are widely employed, despite their inherit weaknesses. One limitation of most workflow tools is that even though they allow companies to implement workflow processes, they fail to provide a good platform-independent solution. Furthermore, corporate re-organizations and employee turnover are frequent events in today's business world. In order to compete in the expanding global market, companies must be able to adapt to changing organization structures. Another limitation of traditional workflow tools is that they suffer from lengthy implementations—both a direct cost and an opportunity cost in today's fast-paced electronic business economy. Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, most tools are often too complex for the typical business user to administer. That is, specialized IT personnel are often required to implement, maintain and troubleshoot workflow enabled technology—either because relationships are hardcoded in the workflow tool, or because the technology is embedded in a more complex application. When IT personnel administer the applications, the business-users' input in the business event becomes limited. It is easy to see how the benefit of business-user's input into improving the process and responding more quickly to changes in the organization is lost when the business-user has no direct control or oversight of the business event.
Conventional automated workflow tools generally provide descriptions of an organizational structure that are cumbersome to modify to account for organizational changes and have limited organizational modeling ability. For example, prior art systems allow fewer dimensions of organizational definition, and significantly, they fail to provide the ability to define easily referenced functional roles with the organization. Another shortcoming is seen in cases where the added dimensions can be defined, but cannot be identified “in context”. As an example, a functional role of “Direct Supervisor” should not yield the same result for all personnel within an organization. The correct, contextual answer varies depending upon the person for whom that relative role is being resolved. The prior art also lacks the ability to provide “functional links” between organization units. These links allow a portion of an organization tree/sub-tree to be made available as a provider of some service or function to another sub-tree that is part of a completely different organization (e.g., a different company engaged to provide out-sourced services).
Therefore, there is a need for a system that provides the ability to provide functional links between organizational units, and allows organizational changes to be made easily and to be correctly modeled by the automated workflow system.
Furthermore, there is a need for a tool that allows a business(es) to build and maintain web enabled workflow solutions to support electronic business applications, as well as business-to-business relationships. Furthermore, it is beneficial to have an enterprise workflow tool that provides a clear separation between the application, the processes and the organization. The present invention provides for an easily implemented, maintained and administered workflow model that maximizes user group control, and can dynamically adapt to changes in the enterprise.